Anchor
by W. A. Ravensdale
Summary: After waking up in an unfamiliar hospital bed, Skye struggles to forget the awful experience while trying to continue her life as normally as possible. Her father's solution? Sending her off to Beacon Hills to stay with her grandparents for the summer. Oh, and yeah, she's got a bodyguard now. Slightly AU. Mainly Derek/OC.


Chapter 1

The first thing Skye became aware of were the faint noises around her, all blurred together and impossible to identify. She tried to shake her head, but her body wouldn't obey. Maybe she was dreaming? Slowly the awful ringing in her ears faded, until it disappeared completely.

A muffled voice got her attention, but she couldn't place it. It was very familiar and feminine, but the words were all blended together and it took some time for her to sort them out. "William, I don't think that's a good idea at all...No, just listen to me for a second, will you? That's not fair. Skye may not be my daughter by blood, but I love her just as much! Of course, I want her to be safe, especially after these past few weeks, but... alright; we'll talk about it later, okay? Don't do anything rash, please..."

Skye wanted to roll her eyes at her step-mother's fake concern, but her body wouldn't let her. Her body still being asleep while her mind was wide awake freaked her out. She'd read about sensations like this before, she'd just never experienced it herself. And now that she had, she wished she hadn't.

"Talk to her before you make any decisions, you know she won't be pleased if we just drop this on her..." Susan's voice grew louder as she opened the door, not bothering to be quiet. For all she knew, Skye was still out cold.

"Yes, fine. I'll call you if there are any changes... You're on your way, though, right? Okay, I love you, too."

As she entered the room, the sticky smell of her expensive perfume invaded Skye's nostrils -_ did the woman bathe in her perfume or what?_ - mixing with the heavy scent of hand disinfectant, which she had failed to notice until now. The awful combination overwhelmed her and made Skye's stomach turn violently. She tried opening her eyes, but couldn't bring her body to respond.

She heard keys rattling and papers being shuffled as the older woman approached her bed. Susan was muttering to herself while she searched her purse for something. The foot of Skye's bed dipped under the weight of her purse as she put it down an continued her search. What the hell was she looking for? She could almost picture her blond curls falling over her face, as her perfectly-manicured fingers tucked her iPhone away in one of the smaller pockets. Skye was completely irritated with her body's lack of response to her commands. Being deprived of her sight was literally driving her mad. She would even take looking at her insufferable step-mother's expressionless face over not being able to see anything at all. And she really didn't enjoy the sight of Susan, so that was saying something.

But she was scared too. She couldn't understand why her body wouldn't wake up. She didn't even know where she was.

Another noise caught her attention, and she was left wondering as to how she hadn't noticed the awful beeping of the monitor before. Now that she had, she could hardly hear anything but that. _Great_, she thought,_ unable to move __and__ forced to listen to that wretched noise_.

Not knowing what got her in this mess was starting to bother her immensely, and Skye was never the one to lose control of herself. The memories were fuzzy and her head throbbed as she tried to think of the last thing she remembered.

_She remembered being chilly and wrapping her jacket tighter around her. Had the garage been completely empty? No...there was a wet car pulling into the lot. Why was she there? _Oh, Sam._ Sam kept her late again. He offered her to spend the night, but she didn't agree. She knew her father wouldn't approve. She didn't want to fight him again. They've been fighting a lot lately. _

_Her slightly curly black hair was messy and all over the place, so she tied it up in a high bun. A man smiled at her. She thought he looked tired. He was carrying a black suitcase, and Skye thought he must have been working late. But then his face went white and his body stiff... The last thing she remembered was his body hitting the ground just as a hand covered her mouth and everything went black._

_Fuck. Fuck. Fuck._

The beeping increased as Susan's face grew worried above Skye's bed.

* * *

Her eyes popped open and a loud gasp filled the room, making Skye's lungs sting at the sudden intake of breath. Her body was screaming at her in protest, every muscle in her body aching and pain searing through her as she breathed heavily, but she ignored it. She looked around, desperately trying to figure out where she was.

The room was much smaller than her bedroom and disturbingly white. There was a window to her right but white curtains prevented her from seeing outside. The majority of the space was taken up by the lumpy bed that she was lying on. There were no pictures, no plants, or anything personal in the room. An uncomfortably-looking chair was placed a few feet away from the bed and a table propped against the wall opposite her bed.

Something tugged at her fingers as she caught her breath. Her eyes travelled down the tube that was inserted into her right hand, which was connected to an IV pole with a digital monitoring system. So that was what was making that hideous noise! That's when it all clicked into place. She bitterly realized where she was. Lying in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room with cold institutional tiled floor, unlike her bedroom which had wooden floors; she wasn't in her room, she was in a hospital. The question now was, why was she here?

* * *

The following few days were tiring to say the least. Once Susan called the doctors to inform them that Skye was finally awake her dad was barely in the door and in Skye's arms before the nurse rushed everyone out of the room to run all the necessary tests.

The results came back normal with no complications and according to Dr. Johnson, "Her experience shouldn't hold her back in the long run, physically at least." Apparently a few broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder wasn't that big of a deal at all. The bruising would subside over time, the bones would heal and there wouldn't be any visible scars on her body. Her mind, though, was a different story.

The memories weren't completely there yet and it terrified Skye that she didn't know what happened to her. She could remember waking up with a whimper of pain as her back hit the metal siding of a van on a sharp turn and the unbelievable pain that shot through her when she hit the hard cold ground as she was pushed out of a van five days later with a chain around her neck and an envelope tucked safely under her bra. Everything in between was a blur. She only knew she had been missing for five full days because her father, and later the police, told her so.

To say Skye was sick of being interrogated by the police and her father at least ten times a day since she had woken up was an understatement. They would have continue with their questions had she not lost her temper and lashed out at them one evening. After that, nobody dared to bring up what happened to her much.

Some of her friends came to visit her with get-well-soon balloons and tons of flowers but she hadn't wanted their company and had sent them home soon. Sam and his sister Katy dropped by with an enormous teddy-bear as well but she pretended to be asleep. They left a few hours later with a silent promise to come back when she was awake. When they came again the next day, she made the nurse lie and rush them out only a few minutes after they arrived. The glare she got from the nurse spoke volumes but she didn't pay it much thought.

The only person she actually wanted to have beside her at the time was the only no-show. She didn't know if her brother even knew about what happened to her. It wouldn't surprise her if her father or step-mother failed to update him, they hadn't spoken to him in years after all, but it still sucked big time. When she asked her dad about Jay he swiftly changed the subject and wouldn't tell her anything.

She knew he blamed himself for the fallout he had with his son, and he was absolutely right, but he could get over it. This was the perfect excuse to talk to him and see him after four years. But it seemed like his daughter getting kidnapped and thrown out of a speeding van wasn't enough to swallow his pride. She briefly wondered what it would take, if not her almost dying.

Her father was as honest and heartless in the courtroom as any well-known and respected lawyer should be, but she knew he had a big heart - loving and letting Susan in his home proved just that. But sometimes his priorities got mixed up and he ended up fighting for the things he should have let go and quickly let go of things he should fight harder for.

Skye stopped resenting him for it a long time ago. Still, it hurt sometimes to have him brush her off like this, but mostly she just felt sad for him. If only mom was still alive...

Taking it upon herself to try and contact her estranged brother, Skye sent him an e-mail to his last known e-mail address but now five days after waking up, he still hadn't replied. Shaking her head to get the those murky and dark thoughts out of her head, she let the nurse help her in the wheelchair with as much resistance and bitterness as possible. She almost died, for fuck's sake; she was allowed to be bitter!

Rolling her eyes at the stupid hospital policy which forced her to leave the grounds in a wheelchair - even though she could walk well enough on her own - she let her father push her down the hall, feeling slightly pleased to see Susan trying to balance all the flowers, balloons, and Skye's personal belongings in her hands along with her designer hand bag and a steaming hot coffee.

As soon as they were out on the parking lot, Skye pushed against the wheelchair with her hands in an effort to get up, only to cry out as the pain in her chest increased considerably and she fell back on the seat, her hand pressed at her side. She could swear she saw the nurse smirk slightly before she hurried back inside. Skye sighed loudly in resignation.

"I'll bring the car around. Susan, wait with Skye please, and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid like try to walk with three broken ribs or something like that."

The raven-haired girl glared at her father, knowing his comment was addressed to her more than his wife.

"And you," he pointed at Skye, "stay put for three minutes. Can you do that?"

Skye nodded curtly but didn't say anything. He didn't move for a few moments and there was something in his eyes that made her pause and hold his gaze for a moment. But it was gone as quickly as it had come and before Skye had the time to figure out what it meant, he was walking away, leaving Skye to wonder if in some twisted way her father actually knew he was making the wrong choices. Then she remembered he had been married to Susan for almost seven years now and that if he hadn't realized what a terrible mistake that had been then he sure as hell hadn't figured out anything else.

* * *

The first week back home was a complete nightmare. Skye was still badly hurt and needed a lot of help just getting out of her bed. And asking her father for help - or god forbid, Susan - was something she really didn't want to do. She had suggested that they hire a nurse to help her when her father was at work and Susan wherever she spent her days, but to her absolute shock, her father told her that he would be staying home to help her. He never stayed at home; his job was practically his life.

She thought of just calling Sam instead, knowing he would help her in a second, but then there were the dreadful nightmares and she really didn't want anyone witnessing those. They felt completely real and she woke up shaking every night drenched in sweat and gasping for air. It was always the same dream too; she was watching that innocent man die. She could never fall back asleep after that. She was running on three to four hours of sleep a night at best. Being kidnapped by someone who just wanted to get back at your father for landing him in jail - at least that was what her father told her was the reason - did that to you. She was still furious with her father for not letting her see the note that had been thrown out of the van with her but, he told her it would be too traumatic for her and wouldn't change his mind no matter what.

She, of course, couldn't blame her father for what happened, no matter what. She knew what her father did was for the greater good, and that if he ever suspected his family would suffer because of his work, he would back out. At least that was what she told herself. She knew he felt terrible about it, though.

Their security had been doubled and there was absolutely no way anyone could break into the penthouse and they even got a dog - though the adorable pit bull puppy was at this point anything but a guard dog - but Skye was still terrified. She jumped at every shadow and turned at every creak from the furniture. Even the smallest whispers and murmurs got her heart beating faster. She even started to sleep with the lights on, something she hadn't done since she was five. Skye was freaking out and she had no idea how to get herself together.

She usually spent her nights on her computer, trying to find out as much as she could about the man that was killed only for being in her proximity. There was absolutely nothing she could have done to prevent the murder but she still felt like she was the one to blame. Maybe if she hadn't been born in such a wealthy family, he would still be alive. Maybe if she hadn't started that weird friends-with-benefits relationship with Sam, she wouldn't be in his garage that night. Maybe if she hadn't forgotten her phone at Sam's and was forced to go back, he wouldn't have been there yet. Maybe if she had parked against the wall, the van wouldn't be able to park next to her and the masked man wouldn't be able to sneak up behind her. Maybe they wouldn't notice him then. Maybe Max Cassidy would still be alive.

Max, she found out, was the co-founder and CEO of one of the biggest retail firms in New York, Cassidy & Co. He was married to a woman named Ivy Cassidy and had three young children; Monica, Noel and Samantha, aged eleven, seven and three respectively. Skye's heart was aching for his kids. She knew how it felt to lose someone so dear. Someone whose place nobody could ever take. She had just turned eight when her mother had passed away so she knew how hard it was to lose a parent so young. From what she had learned from the articles on the internet, Max was definitely a man who put his family first. The night he had been killed he was working late so he could finish up some necessary paper work before taking his family for a month-long vacation to France.

Max Cassidy was a great man and now he was dead; because of Skye.

* * *

Two weeks after she was released from the hospital, Skye had an appointment at the doctor's to make sure everything was healing alright. To her ultimate horror, her father had a meeting and wasn't able to take her and Susan ended up taking her. She was feeling better already; the bruises had turned a shade of purple from violent green and she was finally able to get out of bed on her own. She even managed to hobble around the second floor for a little while before everything started hurting and she was forced to lie down again.

The doctor assured her that everything was fine and told her she was recovering quickly and she would be able to walk and run normally in a couple of weeks. He offered to direct her to a specialist if she wanted to talk about what had happened to her with someone but she politely refused. She didn't need a therapist. He advised for her to do a few exercises to help speed up the recovery and asked her to make an appointment again, in a week's time. He also told her that because of her heart condition, she shouldn't upset herself too much.

The car ride home was spent in silence but that was nothing new. Skye and Susan rarely communicated and when they did, it was only for her father's sake. In the beginning, Susan had tried to form some sort of relationship with her but two years later she finally gave up, realizing that she could never replace Patricia no matter how hard she tried.

Once they returned home the doorman notified them that they had a visitor waiting upstairs and Skye frowned at his words. If the guest was let upstairs it was either someone who visited frequently or her father was home already.

As soon as the elevator dinged open onto the porch of their penthouse Skye stumbled towards the living room, her hand holding onto her side to ease the pain slightly. The trip to the doctor's had made quite a number on her and had literally pushed her limits. She was more than ready to lie down again but her curiosity won over.

Her father was sitting on a loveseat in front of the fireplace and his guest was sitting opposite him, his back facing towards Skye. She couldn't help but feel wary at her father's relaxed posture - ever since she had been kidnapped her father had been tense, under tons of stress and full of worry at all times. Seeing him like this was … unsettling.

She winced as she walked down the two steps that separated the dining room and the living room. She stopped in her tracks as her father noticed her and smiled softly before standing up. _Odd_.

"Skye, we were waiting for you, honey." He began, walking towards her, but she wasn't looking at him.

Her eyes were trained on the intimidating frame of the gorgeous man who was turning around as well. She couldn't help but wonder if this was a friend of her father's and if he was, why the hell was she meeting the stunning man just now?

The very first thing she noticed when he came to stand a few feet away from him was how broad his shoulders were. He was incredibly well built and obviously spent a lot of time exercising and taking care of his body going by how perfectly toned it was. He wore a navy blue V-neck that hugged his muscular chest and firm stomach like a glove, leaving little to imagination. A black leather jacket hung loosely from his shoulders and also fit him perfectly. Paired with black jeans and boots the figure itself was sin-worthy.

She hadn't noticed it before - too busy checking him out - but now that she tore her eyes from his abs she could see beautiful emerald green sparkling eyes under strong eyebrows. His hair was dark brown, bordering on black and he had impressively sharp cheekbones that were covered in a slight stubble. Skye had a sudden urge to touch him. She, of course, didn't but she did offer him a cheeky smile.

In return he offered her a wide grin, revealing stunningly white teeth as his eyes ran over her and she suddenly felt extremely self-conscious. She cursed herself for not dressing nicer, instead of just throwing on some sweatpants and a tank top. In her defense though, she thought her day would be extremely uneventful. She didn't know she was going to meet any handsome strangers!

"Skye." Her father's voice pulled her away from her thoughts and she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "This is Derek Hale and he will be accompanying you everywhere you go from now on." His gaze nervously fluttered between Derek and Skye as he scratched his temple. "_Indefinitely."_

All thoughts off the sinful stranger left her mind as she stared at her father in utter shock for a few moments before she exploded. "You got me a guard dog?!"

* * *

_I know I have at least two stories already out there which desperately need updating, but this one has been on my mind for quite a while now, and I decided to give it a try. I do plan on finishing the other two as well, though. I just can't promise it will be anytime soon. Oh, and I'm still searching for a beta for the Once Upon a Time story _Home_ so if anyone wants to help me or knows someone who has beta-ed before and would be interested, please contact me. Thank you. _

_I'm really curious to hear what you guys think about this story. Should I continue or not? _

_A big fat thank you goes to my amazing beta _Caighlee_ for putting up with me and helping me with this story. Also, I have to thank_ DamonGotTheGirl_ for her help as well._

Disclaimer:_ I don't own Teen Wolf or any of its characters._


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